the other night i was woken up by my cheese craving. i was like shut up, you know we don't have cheese. but it was like screw you, you should have cheese.

a chunk of corn bread sort of cured my craving that night, but i couldn't get over how loudly and obnoxiously i needed cheese.

my craving did have a point. save for a little blue cheese splurge a few weeks ago, i really haven't bought cheese in months because eggboy doesn't eat it. i think i've lost like a pound about it? but one pound ain't worth it, so i bought cheese and made mac and cheese.

when i was little, mum's homemade baked mac and cheese meant that a special thing just happened: i came home from camp, i did well in a skating competition, i learned a paradiddle. orrr a bad thing just happened: i got an ear infection, i did poorly at a skating competition, i got in a screaming fight with my science teacher about a dumb chocolate cake project and got a detention for it.

i'd count the minutes until it was ready. i'd burn my mouth on it. i'd have seconds. and then i'd linger at the casserole dish and nosh for five more minutes until i could eat no more.

it wasn't until i was hanging out with our family friend marsha that i learned how easy it was to make mac and cheese from scratch without the production of grating a ton of cheese, making three meals worth, and baking it with breadcrumbs. marsh just whipped up a little pot of it real quickly, and that was lunch! no special occasion or velveeta necessary.

since then i almost always make my mac from scratch. if people are coming over, i bring out the big guns in the form of gruyere, bacon, and panko. if it's just me, i use whatever cheese i've got. this one-pot version is so damn easy, i could make it in my sleep. it leaves no excuses for ignoring a midnight cheese craving. (assuming you have cheese, of course.) and in the morning, you have just an ounce of cleanup.

in a medium pot over medium heat, melt butter. mix in flour to form a paste. add milk and cook, stirring constantly, until it begins to thicken. add pasta and cook, stirring often, for six minutes. add cheese and stir until melted. cook for another few minutes, stirring often, until pasta reaches desired consistency (it'll take a few minutes longer than if you were to make pasta in boiling water). add salt, pepper, and whatever else you want. go ahead, eat it straight out of the pot.